Rotary baler



C. J. SCRANTON May 10, 1949.

ROTARY BALER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 8, 1944 May 10, 1949. c. J.SCRANTON ROTARY BALER 2 Sheets-Sheet 72 Filed March 8, 1944 Patented May10, 1949 ROTARY BALER' Charles J. Scranton, La Porte, Ind., assignor toAllis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, Milwaukee, Wis. a corporation ofDelaware Application March 8, 1944, Serial No. 525,482

v 4 Claims. 1

This invention relates to machines embodying apparatus for compressingand/or otherwise treating fibrous material delivered thereto and itsprimary object is to provide such, machines with an improved fibrousmaterial conveying and/or feeding means which is operative to effectgravitational separation and disposal of foreign material carried alongwith the fibrous material being delivered to the machine and which is ofparticular advantage in connection with machines employed for picking upand treating such fibrous materials as grass, vines, leaves and the likecontaining foreign material such as stones, pieces of metal and glass.

Another object of this invention is to provide machines of the typehereinabove specified'with anovel correlation of elements affording asimplified, durable and inexpensive fibrous material conveying and/orfeeding means.

The construction and the application of apparatus embodying theinvention will become apparent as the disclosure progresses and.particularly points out additional objects, advantages, andcorrelations of features which are considered of special importance andaccordingly the invention may be considered as consisting of the variousdetails of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements ofparts as is more fully set forth in the appended claims and in thedetailed description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,in which:

Fig. 1 is a partial plan view of a baling machine embodying theinvention; and

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the machine shown in Fig. 1 with partsbroken away to better show the arrangement of parts.

Referring to the drawings, it is seen that the invention may be appliedto a machine embodying a frame structure I on which is operativelymounted a pick-up conveyor 2, and fibrous material treating apparatuscomprising upper and lower drive roll assemblies 3 and 4, respectively,

"upper and lower bale forming bands 6 and l which pass over and aredriven in opposite directions by the roll portions of assemblies 3 and4, respectively, and a press roll assembly 8 coacting with assembly 4 toreceive and compress the loose mass of fibrous material deliveredthereto by conveyor 2 into a flat mat which is then acted upon by thebands 6 and l and rolled into a. compact cylindrical bale as disclosedin U. F. Luebben's rotary baler patents, U. S. 2,096,990 and 2,336,491,issued October 26, 1937, and December 14, 1943, respectively; it beingunderstood i'orpurposes of this disclosure that the parts of the fibrousmaterial treating apparatus thus far identified are to be considered asconstructed and functionally correlated with each other and withadditional parts as shown and described in said Luebbens patents andthat if more detailed information is desired concerning theconstruction, correlation and operation of such parts,

reference may be had to the disclosures of said patents. A plurality ofbands may be substituted for the, individual bands 6 and I shown in Fig.2 in the manner shown and described in Luebben Batent No. 2,096,990.

Lower ,drive roll assembly 4 and press roll assembly 8 are normallyrotating, being driven in any suitable manner by mechanism (not shown),and the assembly 4 includes oppositely extending roll supporting shaftportions 9 which arein turn rotatably supported in bearings I0 carriedby brackets ll secured to the frame structure I. Conveyor 2 comprises aframe structure l2 having opposite sides of its dis-- charge endprovided with rearwardly extending rigid brackets or. arms i3 havingrecessed rear ends supportingly hooked on the bearings l0 and thusretained by locking elements l4 thereby providing in effect a pivotalsupport for the rear end of conveyor'2. Opposite sides of the rear endportion of the frame l2 are also provided with rearwardly spaced pairsof bearings l6 and i1 rotatably supporting parallel shafts l8. and I9,respectively; shaft l9 being driven from shaft I8 by means of sprockets2i, 22 and a chain 23 and shaft l8 being in turn driven from a shaftportion 9 by means of sprockets 24, 26 and a chain 21. Shaft I8 is alsoprovided with a pair of laterally spaced intermediate sprockets 28 and29 for driving parallel endless chain elements 3| and 32 interconnectedby longitudinally spaced. transversely extending raddle bars 33.

The upper run of the material moving parts of the conveyor is supportedfor movement over and along the floor or material supporting surface 34which is in turn supported by longitudinally and transversely extendingbars 36, 31 and 38,

respectively, forming a part of frame structure The forward end of theconveyor is preferably supported in material pick-up. relation to theground as indicated in Fig. 2 y vertically extending suspension rods 43which may be attached to the upper portion of the frame structure I (notshown), as illustrated in Luebbens Patent 36,491.

Ihe rear end 39 of conveyor floor 34 is disposed in spaced opposedparallelrelation to the roll portion of lower drive assembly 4, andshaft l9, which is positioned approximately midway between said rear end39 and roll portion, is provided with a plurality (three in this case)of outwardly extending, circumferentially spaced pocket forming bladesor vanes 44 having offset end portions 46 preferably shaped as bestshown in Fig. 2. The blades 44 extend parallel to shaft l9 and thereforeparallel to the rear end 39 of conveyor floor 34 and to the roll portionof the lower drive assembly. Consequently, the pockets formed by blades44 extend transversely with respect to the general direction of materialmovement and parallel to the shaft IS; the blades 44 and therefore thepockets formed thereby being substantially coextensive in length withthe effective width of the discharge end of the conveyor and with theroll portion of assembly 4.

In operation, fibrous material picked up by the roll 40 is moved upwardalong the inclined floor surface 34 of conveyor 2 by the passage of theendless chains and raddle bars thereover and upon leaving the dischargeend 39 of floor 34 is engaged and supported by the blades 44 whichconduct the material over the pockets formed therebetween and to thecoacting roll portions of the press and lower drive roll assemblieswhich operate to engage, compress and feed material into the machine ina fiat mat for further treatment as hereinbefore indicated. Whenhandling such fibrous material as hay, vines and the like, only thefirst material discharged from the conveyor is actually engaged andsupported by the blades 44 in its passage thereover and as soon as theloose mass of material reaches and passes between the compressing rolls,the pull exerted on the approaching mass of fibrous material by theaction of the rolls, assuming a continuous mass is moving up theconveyor 2, lifts the mass out of engagement with the blades 44. Whetheror not the pull exerted on the material by action of the compressingrolls will maintain the material out of engagement with the blades 44 isof course dependent upon the difierence in elevation between thedischarge end of the conveyor and the compressing rolls and upon thenature and the continuity of the mass of material being handled.

In any event, the passage of a loose mass of material over the pocketsformed by the blades 44 permits foreign material contained in said massto gravitate into the underlying pocket which, due to the rotation ofshaft I9, is subsequently positioned to effect a gravitational dischargeof the foreign material therefrom. In other words, the normally rotatingdevice comprising shaft l9 and blades 44 interposed between thedischarge end of conveyor 2 and the roll portion of lower drive rollassembly 4 and over which the loose mass of material passes in movingfrom the conveyor to the compressing rolls, provides pockets whichextend transversely to the general direction of material movement there?over and which are successively positioned to receive foreign materialgravitating from the loose mass of fibrousmaterial passing thereover andto discharge the foreign material from the underside of the device; thatis the pockets are successively positioned to receive andgravitationally discharge the foreign material into the passage beneaththe device formed by opposed portions of the machine and the conveyor 2supported thereon. Said device is operative when necessary and doesoperate on occasion to actually feed the material discharged from theconveyor to the compressing rolls and in addition prevents injury tosuch rolls or other material receiving and feeding parts of a machineembodying same by effecting gravitational separation and disposal of theforeign material carried along with the loose mass of fibrous materialdischarged from the conveyor.

The invention is generally applicable to all types of fibrous materialtreating machines and although the invention is disclosed as applied toa rotary baling machine, it should be understood that it is not intendedto limit the invention to the application, details of construction andexact mode of operation herein shown and described as variousmodifications within the scope of the appended claims may occur topersons skilled in the art.

It is claimed and desired to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a machine embodying apparatus for baling fibrous materialdelivered thereto, a frame structure operatively mounting means forcompressively pulling fibrous material into said ma- .chine comprising aroll having one or more bands travelling over the compressing portion ofthe roll, a material pick-up and elevating conveyor supported on partscarried by said frame structure and with the discharge end thereofpositioned in spaced opposed relation to and below the compressingportion of said roll and with the pick-up end thereof positioned inproximate relation to the ground, a rotatable device also from thefibrous material passing from the discharge end of said conveyor to thecompressing portion of said roll, and means for operating said device tomove said pockets successively to foreign material receiving anddischarging positions.

2. In a machine embodying apparatus for baling fibrous materialdelivered thereto, a frame structure operatively mounting means forcompressively pulling fibrous material into said machine comprising aroll having one or more bands travelling over the compressing portion ofthe roll, a material pick-up and elevating conveyor including asecondary frame supported on parts carried by said frame structure, saidconveyor having its discharge end positioned in spaced relation to andbelow the compressing portion of said roll and having its pick-up endpositioned in proximate relation to the ground, a rotatable devicepositioned by said secondary frame between the discharge end of saidconveyor and said rollv and below the compressing portion of the latter,said device including elements processively to foreign materialreceiving and discharging positions we 3. In an agricultural machineembodying apparatus for baling fibrous material delivered thereto, aframe structure operatively mounting a pair of opposed materialreceiving and compressing rolls, a material pick-up and elevatingconveyor having a secondary frame carrying a material supporting surfaceand endless elements interconnected by longitudinally spaced transversely extending raddle bars supported for movement along said surfaceto convey material thereover, one or more bands at least partiallycovering the material receiving and compressing portion of one of saidrolls, means including parts carried by said frame structure formounting said conveyor on said machine with its pick-up end positionedin proximate relation to the ground and with its discharge endpositioned in spaced opposed relation to and below the compressingportion of said one of said rolls, a rigidly constructed rotatabledevice supported on said secondary frame below the compressing portionof said one of said rolls and efiectively bridging th space between thedischarge end of said conveyor and the compressing portion of said oneof said rolls and including fibrous material supporting and conveyingelements arranged to provide pockets which extend transversely withrespect to the general direction of material movement and over which thefibrous material passes in moving from said conveyor to said rolls, andmeans for rotating said device to position said pockets successively forreceiving foreign material gravitating from the fibrous material passingthereover and for discharging such foreign material beneath said device.

4. In a machine embodying apparatus for baling fibrous materialdelivered thereto, a frame 7 structure operatively mounting means forcompressively pulling fibrous material into said machine comprising aroll having one or more bands traveling over the compressing portion ofthe roll, a material pick-up and elevating conveyer supported on partscarried by said frame structure and with the discharg end thereofpositioned in spaced opposed relation to and below the compressingportion of said roll and with the pick-up end thereof positioned inproximate relation to the ground, and a rotatable device supported onparts carried by said frame structure and positioned thereby between thedischarge end of said conveyer and said roll and \below the compressingportion of the latter, said device including a plurality of bladesmounted on a shaft and effectively bridging the space between thedischarge end of said conveyer and the compressing portion of said roll,said blades being spaced apart for receiving and discharging foreignmaterial gravitating from the fibrous material passing thereover fromthe discharge end of said conveyer to the compressing portion of saidroll, and presenting peripheral portions operative to move fibrousmaterial from the discharge end of said conveyer to said compressingmeans.

CHARLES J. SCRANTON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS

